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Cobi
Cobi, officially Cobi S.A - a Polish LEGO clone manufactured since the 90's. History Cobi was founded in 1987 as Ertrob (name based on the name of Cobi's founder - Robert Podleś) and originally was creating board games and importing toys from companies such as Tyco or Matchbox to Poland. In the year 1992 they created the Cobert subsidiary to create LEGO-like plastic blocks. In the year 1996 they created their factory plant in Mielec, and two years later they begun selling their products in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, France and Germany. In 2006 they made a deal with Best-Lock, which allowed them to enter North American and Asian market, allegedly even appearing at Toys "R" Us Cobi on Polish Wikipedia. Now it's known as Cobi in all markets. Overwiew Lines The most well-known Cobi line is their Mała Armia (Small Army) line, focused on military vehicles and buildings, it became very popular in Europe due to the lack of LEGO military sets due to the company's policy. Around the year 2014, they created their most popular line - Small Army World War II (known in Poland as Mała Armia World War II), featuring World War II vehicles. They have recently made deals with Wargaming, allowing themto produce lines based on their "World Of" games, with codes unlocking in-game items coming in with the sets. They also have a LEGO City-like line, known as Action Town. They also distribute a lot of toys in Poland, including ones from companies such as Jakks Pacific, such as their Real Workin' Buddies Mr. Dusty (re-named "Max Łakomczuch" for some reason). Figures Cobi Figures are more realistic than LEGO Minifigures. In the past they used to add action figure-esque figures and even strange-looking green toy soldiers into their sets, pictures of these two types of figures are very rare however. Until 2014 they used to include LEGO-like figures with their sets. Controversy Cobi caused much controversy, mostly because of their World War II line, which some people accused of "promoting nazism" Polish firm to keep making Nazi toys | The Times of Israel and even pulling their toys off shelves. Instytut Pamięci Narodowej caused a mass media turmoil in 2016 over a NKVD officer in one of their sets "Oficer NKWD z pepeszą w kolekcji klocków dla dzieci! IPN interweniuje" - Fakt.pl. Pros and Cons Pros *Sets are VERY cheap - for example, a 470-block set featuring a big tank costs only 80 Polish złotys. *World War 2 sets are very good at replicating the real-life vehicles, even if the scale of them is off. *Nice looking custom figure design, with a LEGO Friends-esque design. *A lot of details, including great minifigure-scale weapons, barbed wire or sandbags. *Helmets and vests can be used for LEGO Figures. *Great customer service. Cons *Many vehicles are oversized. *Most of their other series are just mediocre, especially when compared to Small Army World War II. *The minifigure-scale weapons don't fit LEGO Minifigures. *Many old sets are just downright bad, and can fall apart with just one touch. *Sometimes you can get missing or even deformed parts, tho the latter are very rare. *Instructions might be hard to read to people used to LEGO instructions. References Category:Controversial Category:European Clones Category:Tier A Clones Category:Clones with several names Category:Clones with several logos Category:Poland